Book Review: The Martian by Andy Weir

“Yes, of course duct tape works in a near-vacuum. Duct tape works anywhere. Duct tape is magic and should be worshiped.” ~Mark Watney (in Andy Weir’s novel, The Martian)

This month’s book club novel is The Martian by Andy Weir. As you know, Dear Bloggites, I love reading debut books from new authors. Any Weir has a unique story about his novel. He offered it for free for a while before deciding to sell it at the lowest cost on Amazon.com. Once readers from Amazon read the book, Andy Weir’s novel became a high demand item and even won an award from Amazon.

The book became so popular that the author was offered a movie deal and this movie is scheduled to be out in theaters on October 2nd. I plan on watching the movie to see how well they follow the storyline. Now, for my review. 🙂

The very first line caught my attention and (to me) was a genius move on Andy Weir’s part. It immediately caught my attention. It will catch anyone’s attention whether in a good way or a bad way, depending on if you find cuss words offensive. However, this line worked. I was immediately intrigued because I wanted to know why the statement was made and how it tied into the novel I had just started reading. Kudos, Mr. Weir, Kudos.

As far as a first time novel goes, The Martian was written well. Andy Weir has a back ground in science and has been fascinated by space all his life, so on occasion, the storyline would go into a lot of detail with several acronyms that may or may not have been explained at the time it was introduced into the storyline. Like all new authors, Andy Weir, needs to learn who his audience is when writing his books. Several times throughout the book, I felt that the author forgot his audience was writing to himself.

The storyline is genius. When most people think of Martians they envision aliens invading Earth and attacking the human race. Andy Weir turned that imagination around and made the human the invading species to a different planet, hence, the Martian (not to mention the storyline takes place on Mars…LOL). It is this generation’s equivalent to the movie, Castaway, where we witness the challenges of one man thrown into a situation he never would have imagined could ever take place in his life.

One of the things I absolutely loved was the snarky, sarcastic personality of the character, Mark Watney. I am a very sarcastic person and so I completely related to the character immediately. I love reading books that I can personally relate to throughout a storyline. There were several times throughout the novel that I was laughing out loud, literally, in my bed as I read this book! I loved it! 😀

The vibe of the book was that of never letting a situation get the better of you. The message was one of perseverance with a side of humor. No matter what situation a person faces, they have a choice: make the best of it and overcome or allow the situation to get the best of them and give up. I dig that. I believe that vibe and live it daily. The challenges faced in the book by the character make the reader think about how they would handle the challenge if they were in the situation that Mark Watney found himself in. The book, The Martian, makes the reader think, “What if?” and that, Dear Bloggites, is the making of genius at work! Andy Weir brings about a unique genius in his novel and I look forward to future works of art penned in his name. 🙂

I give The Martian by Andy Weir 4 out of 5 Bookmarks. I recommend you read this book and if you feel up to it, go watch the movie when it comes out and compare the two. That is what I am going to do.